A close friend is an avid 160m DXer. We were discussing the impact of FT8 on
160m. He has worked several new countries using FT8 this past season.But he
did say that one of the biggest problems are stateside to stateside QSOs
covering up very weak DX. Often takes many minutes to complete a QSO. Many
are using marginal antenna systems and they are not able to hear the DX.I hope
this doesn't bring back a DX window on topband.73,Gary K9GS
-------- Original message --------From: John Geiger <af5cc2@gmail.com> Date:
4/30/19 7:32 PM (GMT-06:00) To: rjairam@gmail.com Cc: k9yc@arrl.net,
CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest@contesting.com> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] FT4
- Robotic Contesting I hope you are right about people realizing that CW and
SSB are moreproductive on contests. Last year's June VHF contest was an
absolute mess.Almost everyone sat on FT8 with very little on CW and SSB. The
QRM was sobad on FT8 that it was hard to work anyone. I think I worked
somethinglike 40 grids in the contest. In the Pre-FT8 years with the kind
ofopening we had I could have easily worked over 100.I hope we learned from our
mistakes, but I am not holding my breath on it.73 John AF5CCOn Tue, Apr 30,
2019 at 7:22 PM rjairam@gmail.com <rjairam@gmail.com> wrote:> DXing and grid
chasing is different from contesting I would argue.>> In my experience most of
my contesting experience has been part of a> rover team. FT8 has changed the
dynamic some, but we've found that SSB> and CW are far more productive for
contests for two reasons - one is> the time to completion, and the other is
that you can't ask people to> QSY on FT8. SSB and CW are still far superior for
that.>> Maybe it will change it for fixed stations, I suppose.>> 73> Ria,
N2RJ>> On Tue, 30 Apr 2019 at 19:42, Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>>
wrote:> >> > On 4/30/2019 10:03 AM, rjairam@gmail.com wrote:> > > I’ve used FT8
in VHF contesting and it’s a mixed bag. I doubt that it> will> > > take the
place of SSB or CW.> >> > I'm primarily a CW op, and have been for 55 years.
I'm also quite active> > in the grid chase on 6M, and until two years ago,
found CW best by far> > for picking up multi-hop E-skip. I picked up 80 new
grids last season,> > all but a few using FT8. A handful used MSK144 (meteor
scatter). I made> > no CW or SSB contacts on 6M last season, and very few the
season before.> >> > FT8 has been a game-changer for grid-chasing on 6M and
DXing on 160M.> > Two reasons: 1) ops who don't know CW can activate a grid
with a mode> > that can work 6-10 dB deeper into the noise than CW with great
ops on> > both ends, and 20 dB better than SSB; 2) the mode concentrates all> >
activity into a 2.5kHz window with a multi-decoder. No need for> > waterfall
displays or constantly tuning the band.> >> > Before JT65 and FT8, it took me
eight years to work four JAs on 6M CW.> > This season I worked more than 60 JA
in 23 grids, plus JT and DU.> >> > In the four years prior to the 160M season
just finished, I heard no EU> > at all. This season I worked one of the four CW
stations I heard. Using> > FT8, I worked more than 20 EU stations, 11 of them
new countries.> >> > Things may be different east of W9, but that's life from
W6.> >> > That said, I have no interest in WSJT modes for HF contesting.> >> >
AD6E put it quite well on the NCCC reflector, saying that he loves> >
contesting both for the station-building and the operating. I feel the> > same
way, and have the greatest respect for those contesters, like NCCC> > members
K6XX, W2SC, and N6KT, who do both.> >> > 73, Jim K9YC> >
_______________________________________________> > CQ-Contest mailing list> >
CQ-Contest@contesting.com> >
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest>>>> --> Ria Jairam,
N2RJ> Director, Hudson Division> ARRL - The national association for Amateur
Radio™> +1.973.594.6275> https://hudson.arrl.org> n2rj@arrl.org>
_______________________________________________> CQ-Contest mailing list>
CQ-Contest@contesting.com>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest>_______________________________________________CQ-Contest
mailing
listCQ-Contest@contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|